The University of Utah, College of Nursing's LIFT Simulation Design Lab, in collaboration with the Department of Educational Psychology and the School of Medicine, has been awarded a three-year Board Grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. Established in 1930, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation is the only national foundation dedicated solely to improving the education of health professionals. The Foundation's guiding principal is that "Health education has at its core a strong social mission: to serve the public's needs and improve the health of the public". This grant will fund Project ARIISE (Addressing Racial Inequities through Interprofessional Simulation and Experiential Learning).
Project ARIISE will create an interprofessional learning program that aims to improve patient care by training faculty, residents, fellows, and students to recognize their bias and repair relationships through respectful communication and dialogue. By leveraging the power of simulation and experiential learning, the project will equip learners to address the multilayered dimensions of implicit bias and how it affects maternal health care quality and outcomes. Project ARIISE places the patient experience at the center of student learning. Community engagement sessions will invite women and families from communities of color to dialogue about their experiences accessing maternal health care. The stories, messages, and solutions shared during these storytelling and listening sessions will become the foundation of training workshops. In addition to simulation experiences, participants will engage with an arts-based experience that synthesizes the community engagement sessions and promotes further discussion and action toward real change.
The LIFT Simulation Design Lab is thrilled for the opportunity to partner with the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. The project team includes Susanna Cohen, CNM, DNP, CHSE, FAAN, Karen Tao, PhD, Gretchen Case, PhD, MA, Michelle Debbink, MD, PhD, Gabriela García, MHA, and graduate students Jeelan Fall, RN, BSN, and Yumi Malik, RN.
For more information about PROJECT ARIISE please contact susanna.cohen@nurs.utah.edu or visit the LIFT Simulation Design Website. Click here for more information about the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation